Hey lovelies. So I was inspired by a lovely little headcannon on tumblr about how the Budapest mission never actually happened and it was an inside joke of Clint and Natasha's. It was adorable and inspired me to take the idea a little bit further.

ALSO. I am writing for a hetero pairing, honestly I am shocked at myself right now.

"It's just like Budapest." Clint muttered to the redhead sitting next to him, gesturing to the dirty, cramped abandoned alleyway they were crouched in. Tasha glanced up and flashed him a smirk before returning to staking out their target.

"Fucking Budapest man." She said with a quiet laugh before snaking out from their hiding place and knocking the target to the ground with a kick to high to be humanly possible. But Clint had learned a long time ago that anything he thought shouldn't be physically possible was possible for Tasha. 5'4 and 123 pounds and that woman could do things that no one should be able to do.

"What the hell even happened in Budapest though?!" Tony's voice exploded in his ear through the radio. Clint winced and turned the volume down slightly, smiling ruefully.

"Sorry Tony, forget you were still connected." That was a lie, Clint liked to rile up his fellow avengers. It was all in his file, slight destructive streak, some psychotic tendencies. Whatever though, SHIELD liked their members a little crazy.

"Forget that, you guys are always talking about it like it was some amazing adventure and I've looked, there's no record of a mission to Budapest." Tony whined in his ear, sounding like his was flying around, probably his night to do rounds.

"Clint" Natasha didn't even have to yell to get his attention, she simply said his name calmly, like they were having coffee together and it got his attention. He glanced over and saw that their target had friends, friends who were currently trying to disarm and detain the assassin. The archer grinned slyly and in one smooth motion drew his bow and starting picking the thugs off, one by one. It was a more merciful death than Tasha would have given them anyways.

"Damn it Birdseed, stop ignoring me, I want an answer about this." Tony had that intrigued tone in his voice that he always got when he was talking about a new invention or something he and Bruce were up to or apparently Budapest.

"Sorry Tones, got to help Tasha. Talk to you later." Clint said hurriedly, wincing at the nickname (the bird thing had never struck him as particularly humorous but everyone else seemed to love it) and shutting off his radio as he clambered out of the hiding spot to dispatch the final thug. Ignoring the men dying around them with a self-possession that only she had Natasha interrogated their target for some important information about Korea or something, he didn't know, he didn't ask questions. And he apparently didn't answer them either.

The funny thing was that Budapest had never actually happened. He hadn't ever been there. He didn't think Natasha had either. But on one of their first missions together their target had been from Budapest and they had referred to him as Budapest instead of his actual name for whatever reason. During that mission they had gotten close, closer than ever before, they started really talking and they started to understand each other. So Budapest the crazy guy that they were assigned to take out was the reason they got together in the first place. And then whenever one of them were depressed or acting self-destructive or mourning their lack of normalcy the other would mention Budapest and they would both smirk and laugh.

Then Budapest turned into this mountain of an inside joke. The other avengers heard them talking about it and wondered. Fury and Coulson heard them talking and wondered, sometimes they even asked but neither Clint nor Natasha would ever give them a direct answer. It was like a huge conspiracy that everyone was amazed by even if they knew nothing about it. And in reality it was just a simple word to describe a not so simple relationship. Because when Clint really thought about it he realized that they were Budapest. They were a secret mission that no one understood, hell that no one even believed 100%. No one knew what to think of them together and he loved that. They were unpredictable, they were new, they were different.

And Natasha, he knew the key to her. She could keep her stoic face throughout the day, she could make smart comments without cracking a smile, but he knew the truth. Once they were in bed, kissing lazily and rooming hands over parts that had been well mapped out by the years he knew that he only had to whisper one words and she would crack like the spine of a book and smile up at him. And he knew that only he could draw those real smiles out of her.

The redhead turned towards him now and nodded, large eyes serious as she held the target in place. Clint drew his arm back and let the arrow fly, a merciful death, he always made sure that it was. The world was painful enough already, he was just putting the poor soul out of its misery. Tasha reached out her hand to him, a slight smile playing on her lips, invisible to anyone but him. He took her hand, slinging his bow over his shoulder as they walked back to the car. And if his head fell on her shoulder once they clambered into the backseat so what? He was allowed to be young and vulnerable around her, only her.

Natasha tilted her head to rest against his, her breath visible in the chill of the car, bright red curls brushing his cheek. "Budapest" She muttered to him, so quietly that he could barely hear it.

He smiled and held her hand tighter. "Love you too."

Aw Clint and Nat are my precious assassin babies. I hope you all liked it and to my regular readers: I PROMISE that I will update my other stories as soon as I can, I'm not ignoring them. I'm just writing really fucking slowly and trying to get rid of this damn writers block.

PLEASE REVIEW.

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